Blog Archives:

Now This Is A Real Trader’s Computer Setup

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Sat 14th of Mar, 2009 02:05:54 PM

Remember good ole Phil Davis on LiveStock last week?
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LiveStock Returns Tomorrow At Its Regularly Scheduled Time 1-2PM EST!

Posted by timothysykes on Thu 19th of Jun, 2008 05:46:30 PM

So the marathon episode of LiveStock last week was fun, but now it’s back to reality…1 hour/week…for now…1-2PM EST

So this is the post where you comment with any questions whatsoever you want answered on the show…for those of you that have watched this thing before, you know you can ask questions in the chatroom too, but then again, I usually miss quite a bit of the party while I’m there in front of the camera yapping away.

For example, I’ve heard from several people that there was a Playboy model, Ms. Tayler Delane, in the chatroom last week…I kid you not. Click that link to see her pic
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Can A Book Count As You On Facebook?

Posted by timothysykes on Sat 14th of Jun, 2008 10:49:16 AM

The other day I saw somebody, Liz Panek, tagged a new photo of me on my Facebook profile:

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Why Portfolio Crushes Gawker Like Donald Trump Over Bill Murray

Posted by timothysykes on Wed 11th of Jun, 2008 11:35:33 AM

Leave it to Gawker party photographers to take pics of you at the exact moment you’re making a weird face…see me and Dealbreaker’s John Carney schmoozing and boozing last week:

See previous good-at-making-me-look-bad Gawker articles HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Still, this pic of the Donald in Portfolio the other day is like Gawker x 1,000:
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Is That Really Maria Bartiromo?

Posted by timothysykes on Fri 23rd of May, 2008 12:28:40 PM

I might be am a prick, but to help you guys better understand how everything on Wall Street is about perception, I gotta post this. Maria Bartiromo has been promoted hardcore as the sexiest anchor woman of CNBC, the photo below disproves that theory once and for all. Forget about just aiding and abetting stock manipulators, the fine folks over at CNBC are the true master manipulators!
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Stop Trading So Much And Enjoy TIMpics, Talking Photos!

Posted by timothysykes on Mon 5th of May, 2008 02:07:06 PM

Since incredible trading opportunities like LGDI today (see my reasoning / the play-by-play of my imperfect yet supremely profitable trade in THIS post /comments section) don’t come about every day, I decided this newly redesigned website would not only feature hardcore market / trading content, but also funny stuff, meant to occupy your time during market hours so you’re not tempted to trade the random crap, while also sending you subliminal messages to get you to buy my instructional DVD PennyStocking and book An American Hedge Fund…just kidding…or am I?

Without further bloated introduction, I give you TIMpics! Forget about just regular photos—those are so 1990—these pictures have cool software that allows me to add audio bubbles so you can hear those pictured express their innermost feelings. Get ready cuz these are just the first batch…and soon you’ll be able to upload your own, winning TIMbucks / prizes for the funniest ones…

The Peak—this was it, I coulda woulda shoulda short sold my life that night
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Mr. Hankey And Richard Nixon Are Teaming Up For Your Benefit!

Posted by timothysykes on Fri 25th of Apr, 2008 07:09:20 PM

In recent posts like THIS, you might’ve noticed some small cartoons featured on several stock charts—namely Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo, of South Park fame and Richard Nixon, of “I am not a crook” fame, exemplifying the kind of crappy and crooked companies out there.

Like my blogging adventure, these cartoons are just starting to help make this stuff more understandable / visually stimulating. So, I need your help in finding small pictures of cartoons and pictures that represent common themes such as: so hot right now, too popular, indecisive, volatile, about to take a dive, full of fluff, heavily gossiped, solid company (yeah right, when are we ever gonna find a volatile stock with that quality!), poor management, cool products, bright future etc.

So, let’s see what you guys got, please help this overworked blogger out and link away!

In The Stock Market, Trust No One And No Company Cuz They’re All Sh@#!

Posted by timothysykes on Thu 17th of Apr, 2008 12:08:58 PM

Last night, to a clearly shocked stock market club of about 75 people at the University of Buffalo, that was the main gist of my speech. Not just because I was burned pretty damn badly on one of these microcraps in which I naively believed or because of the media idiots who pretend to be researchers not even because of all the manipulation. No, it’s because out of all the thousands of Penny Stocks, I’ve ever trade/researched, only a handful have ever remained in double digits for more than a few days/weeks! The truth is that all these companies are pretty close to failing so they’re desperate for attention / capital. And it’s that desperation from which you can profit because it makes everything real simple-like.

As those who’ve witnessed firsthand, I love speaking to big groups of people who for the most part have little to no stock market experience (if you wanna book me as a speaker, it’s $1,000 and travel expenses—just not worth my time for anything less since it screws up my trading and blogging).
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The SmallCap Pump & Dump Capital Raising Game: AgFeed Industries Inc. (FEED)

Posted by timothysykes on Thu 17th of Apr, 2008 08:45:08 AM

What’s the ultimate goal of publicly-traded smallcap companies? They sell shares when their stock prices surge to raise the most capital possible. This morning, recent high-flyer Chinese pig-farmer (FEED) did just that, becoming the latest victor in the smallcap pump and dump capital raising game, raising a cool $10 million, selling shares at $16, less than 10% below their closing price of $17.40. What are they gonna do with this newfound capital—buy more pig farms of course!

You can look at this two ways—it’s great for the company that they could raise so much $ at such high prices—usually these financing deals are done at much bigger discounts, think 25%+. The capital gives them a shot at true business glory, even if the odds are still decidedly against them. Then again, it’s dilution below market prices—the rich get special deals—so this stock should open lower as poor people sell their shares—wondering how to buy stock 10% below market prices (hint: you either need to give the company a lot of $ or convince them you and your connections can and will pump up their stock price)

Don’t get me wrong, agri stocks are hot and this is a clear chart breakout so I have only two concerns:
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Two Great Book Reviews And A DVD Review To Boot!

Posted by timothysykes on Wed 16th of Apr, 2008 10:32:12 AM

I absolutely love getting emails like this:

“Tim, I just wanted to thank you for An American Hedge Fund and PennyStocking. My boyfriend was the first to read your incredible book and now my boys, Charlie, 6, and Julian, 4, can’t get enough of it; they make me read it to them every night! And your DVD, oh my, it’s so taught us so much; so now we’re not afraid of any recession because as you say “you can profit from betting against companies managed by all the idiots on Wall Street!” And thanks to your strategies, we’ve already made a few thousand dollars in one month through Short Selling some of these surging microcaps! So, thank you, thank you, thank you, you’ve changed our lives and I’ll be forever grateful!”

Sincerely,

Michelle Casey

And check out the hilarious pics that were attached:

Not to be outdone, I got another great book review from a highly respected investment advisor, Ulli Niemann, aka The Wall Street Bully. Besides having a badass blogger nickname, Ulli advises his clients in ETF and mutual fund investing so I really had no idea how he’d take my wild journey. Guess it’s a good thing he’s a big believer in The American Dream! Here are some of my fav quotes from his review:

“Here’s a man who definitely learned from his shortcomings and is willing let the world know about it by sharing them in his book.”

“The knowledge he gained from several years in the trenches represents wisdom that I have found also applicable to the world of trend tracking.”

“Any trader or investor should adhere to Tim’s findings. This book is a fast and fun read, and I couldn’t put it down.”

Ashley Dupre Girls Gone Wild Pics, aka It Never Ends!

Posted by timothysykes on Tue 18th of Mar, 2008 11:58:39 PM

Forget about at least one of her $1 million offers, now it turns out all around “classy” girl AA Dupre has already filmed weeks worth of “classy” videos for Girls Gone Wild, owned by all around “classy” guy Joe Francis. Check out the pics below and try to guess which guy/guys paid nothing for what Spitzer paid with his career!

UPDATE: Now, we’re hearing Dupre was 17 when she filmed GGW so a blockbuster video looks to be out…for now. You know Dupre’s lawyers are gonna try and turn this around on Joe Francis–the twists and turns never end!

 

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Spitzer’s Girl “Kristen” Is Really Ashley Alexandra Dupre

Posted by timothysykes on Wed 12th of Mar, 2008 09:17:18 PM

Newsflash***** Spitzer’s girl “Kristen” is apparently named Ashley Alexandra Dupre, according to a bunch of websites. THIS is her MySpace profile. Currently getting 5,000 hits/minute, I want in! Before she takes her profile down, see a few of her pics below:

UPDATE: Here’s her Facebook Profile, too, LOL

UPDATE 2: I am now having a conversation with Spitzer’s girl on Facebook, she’s not a big fan of my writing, but who cares, this is hilarious!

UPDATE 3: Ashley messaged me saying “Im a person ok. Nobody owns me.” Point taken, I will no longer refer her as Spitzer’s Girl

UPDATE 4: Ashley inspired me to throw a contest to giveaway my no BS $300 instructional trading DVD on Thursday March 20th, Read the details HERE

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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: Maria Bello And Me

Posted by timothysykes on Mon 25th of Feb, 2008 04:37:18 PM

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is not only my all-time favorite book, nor is it simply the book to which countless reviews (including one from the Dow Jones Newswire) have compared my book, but the activity itself is actually quite helpful for trading because it’s only through careful reflection of the past that we are better prepared for the future.

After many weeks filled with too many 20-hour work days, I enjoy reminiscing about my favorite annual trip, the Sundance Film Festival. Over the past five years, my friends and I have had some wild and crazy times: partying our asses off, schmoozing with celebs, networking, gawking at the seemingly near-plastic LA models/wannabe actresses and seeing incredible movies many months before they’re fit for public consumption (get ready for The Wackness), but this year the trip went by far too quickly.

Perhaps it was because most of my friends now have serious girlfriends or that my newfound blogging business/TIMtv consumed most of my time or the fact that because I was working so much, I didn’t get to enjoy Sundance as much as I would’ve liked.

But the entire trip was made worthwhile by my brief encounter with the stunning Maria Bello. She may be a bit older than me, out of my league and in a committed relationship, but when we met, sparks flew.

Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself:

 

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36 Hours In The Life Of A Trading Addict

Posted by timothysykes on Fri 15th of Feb, 2008 05:18:17 PM

TIM $15,220, Up $485, An Ugly Way To Make An All-Time High

2/14: Get 2 hours of sleep from a late night of writing/researching potential plays, wake up at 7am for a 9am filming with CBS Sunday Morning. I’ll miss the morning trading session, but this is too big to pass up. Forget the 200k-ish people watching CNBC, this show boasts 5+ million weekly viewers!!

They want to talk about neuroeconomics, aka the science behind making money and the addictiveness of profits/high I get when I make a teacher’s annual salary in a few hours. Sure, I said. Only problem was they want to film at my apartment and it’s being cleaned today due to the massive amount of soot from last week’s building fire. Luckily, one of my friends volunteers his sweet place on the UWS—perfect. See some pics:

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7 Lessons, Charts, Pictures And Why It Sucks Waking Up In Smog With A Fire Crackling Outside Your Window

Posted by timothysykes on Thu 7th of Feb, 2008 05:06:12 PM

TIM $14,933, No Trades, No Positions

I’ll get to the fire part in a second, but the boring day in smallcap land takes precedent.

1. Lots of little movers, (CTIB), (VLNC), (NYNY), (FRPT), (SNUS), (ETFC), (ACUS), (TGAL), none of them very perfect, not worth TIM’s money/time…(SCEY) tanked nicely, it’s a great chart, I just wish it were higher priced so I could short it! (Thinkorswim is great, but they don’t allow shorting under $3)

2. (TTWO) spiked $1.50 on a takeover rumor and fell all the way back down and more within 30 minutes—a perfect example of why I hate playing these kinds of stocks, not very predictable for more than a few minutes and you just never know when other people/trader heard/believe the rumor.

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IAAPA, Cygnus and the iPhone of Ticketing

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Sun 25th of Nov, 2007 02:41:18 PM

IAAPA is no ordinary expo. This year over 27,000 people attended, not only because it’s the attraction industry’s largest annual event, but because it’s hella fun! After all, the 1,000 exhibitors trying to sell their products by showing you how fun they are. Check out the pics:

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Yup, that’sme in that crazy inflatable futuristic sumo suit—right before I got taken down hardcore by my fifteen year-old opponent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I definitely need to bring a real camera next time instead of relying on my alleged 3 megapixel camera on my phone (no way this is even 1 megapixel!). Anyway, in addition to having the hottest models of any exhibitor, Sega showcased their 3-D Theater which really rocked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh yes, the reason for me attending the expo in the first place—Cygnus (Other OTC: CYGT.PK) was debuting their new ticketing platform aka my only hope at salvaging my “investment” in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a word: incredible.

 

Not only did I get a chance to have a long chat with their new CEO—Steve Brown, a somewhat confident yet conservative man—but I got to see how excited everyone—and I do mean everyone: Six Flags, Hershey, assorted zoo and museum directors—was about this new software. As Steve Brown says, “it’s the iPhone of ticketing”.

 

To give you a little background, Cygnus has always had an amazing online ticketing platform—how else could this tiny company win the contracts to handle the entire online ticketing operations of industry leaders like Six Flags, Universal Studios, Hershey Park and Cedar Fair—but they never had a front-gate solution and this lack of a comprehensive package hurt them when bidding on contracts.

 

 

Long story short, this new platform handles everything: online, front gate, kiosk, mobile (now through a deal with Shoptext, Cygnus sells tickets by text messages). It’s a clean-looking feature-rich checkout platform that should really win everyone over, attractions and consumers alike. Attraction execs love it because it upsells customers with add-ons (decreasing the need for expensive-to-train seasonal employees and not unlike companies that have had massive success with this: Vistaprint (Nasdaq: VPRT) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN). Think, you’re buying 3 day passes and the software asks you if you’d like to upgrade to 3 season passes for $25 more.

 

Perhaps more importantly, no longer will consumers have to keep navigating back to their shopping cart page—now, after an attraction (or dare I say any company) inserts a few lines of code into their website, the shopping cart will appear on the right hand side of every page. This simple innovation could be huge for ticketing sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, yeah, I’m excited. Maybe even moreso because the new CEO seems deadest on cutting costs, controlling expenses and growing this company only after this new platform has been tested extensively and all the bugs worked out. It’s going to be a long journey, but I’m encouraged by news that they will be handling all the ticketing for the Columbus Zoo (while it’s just a stupid zoo, like the animals they house, these zoos move in herds, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see further customer wins). Of course, the stock probly won’t benefit unless they start getting a lot of small contracts or one big one. Financing definitely wouldn’t hurt either!

Warning: Timothy Sykes and the Easter Bunny have positions in CYGT.

 

Beautiful Models and Charts

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Sun 18th of Nov, 2007 06:53:50 PM

I’m off to LA tomorrow morning for some very interesting meetings over the next two days…we’ll see how they go. Last time I was supposed to be there for two days, I met some some beautiful models, extended my trip to seven days and blew $5,000. I had a sweet suite at The Beverly Hills Hotel and one drunken highlight was me high-fiving Andy Rooney (who was my neighbor) as my models and I were heading out to the clubs and he was going to bed (seriously–

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